FSU's Manuel held out of practice with ankle injury

TALLAHASSEE — If Florida State had a game scheduled Thursday afternoon, starting quarterback EJ Manuel would have put on the same battle-tested, warrior facade that he has showcased at times the past two seasons, coach Jimbo Fisher said.

Thankfully for Fisher, the Seminoles still have two weeks to go before the regular season begins.

Due to what appears to have been a minor ankle sprain suffered late in Wednesday afternoon’s closed practice, Manuel was held out of Thursday’s similarly closed scrimmage inside Doak Campbell Stadium. The scrimmage was the Seminoles’ first live look at themselves this preseason.

“He’d have been out there hobbling and probably would have aggravated the heck out of it,” Fisher said. “He probably could go (Friday) and half the next day. He’ll be fine. It wasn’t no sense to push it. It gave us a chance to work some of these other quarterbacks.”

During the open 30-minute portion of the scrimmage warmups, Manuel was not out with his teammates. He also was not inside the stadium at the end of the practice, when reporters returned.

“It’s just, when you get that right foot, that’s your plant foot,” Fisher explained. “When it’s tender and with you pushing off (to throw), I didn’t want him to develop any bad habits and make him hop around in there and maybe somebody falls on him in there again, and make it worse.

“We were lucky. It was just a freak accident.”

Manuel got his ankle caught underneath a teammate during a pass-blocking portion of a two-minute drill near the end of Wednesday’s practice. A source told the Orlando Sentinel that Manuel didn’t complete the drill, but that he finished the workout by stretching with his teammates during a cool down period. He also left the field under his own power, the source said.

“I know EJ’s a tough guy,” senior running back Chris Thompson said. “There’s not much that will keep him off the field.”

This isn’t the first time Manuel has been injured in a Seminoles uniform. He was hurt twice last season, although he played through the latter of the two injuries, a broken leg, to rally the Seminoles to a second-half comeback victory over Notre Dame in the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando. Manuel also separated his non-throwing shoulder and missed parts of three games. FSU lost all three.

After passing for 2,666 yards and 18 touchdowns during his injury-filled junior season, Manuel enters this season as a potential Heisman Trophy dark horse. One of the positives of Manuel’s injury was the fact that Fisher was able to get more work scrimmage out of the backups, Clint Trickett, Jacob Coker, Sean Maguire and Jameis Winston.

“Clint did some real good things early,” Fisher said. “He drove us early, made some plays. He had a lull and struggled, but then came right back out there. ... He came right there and made a couple of nice throws and got us in the end zone a couple of times.”

I was very pleased with that.”

The news about Manuel’s injury comes just days after Florida quarterback Jeff Driskel suffered a scapula contusion. Gators coach Will Muschamp later announced that the injury wouldn’t cause Driskel to miss reps at the position.